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The Valley of Horses

A Novel

This unforgettable odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primeval world of The Clan of the Cave Bear , and to Ayla, now grown into a beautiful and courageous young woman.

Cruelly cast out by the new leader of the ancient Clan that adopted her as a child, Ayla leaves those she loves behind and travels alone through a stark, open land filled with dangerous animals but few people, searching for the Others, tall and fair like herself. The short summer gives her little time to look, and when she finds a sheltered valley with a herd of hardy steppe horses, she decides to stay and prepare for the long glacial winter ahead. Living with the Clan has taught Ayla many skills but not real hunting. She finally knows she can survive when she traps a horse, which gives her meat and a warm pelt for the winter, but fate has bestowed a greater gift, an orphaned foal with whom she develops a unique kinship.

One winter extends to more; she discovers a way to make fire more quickly and a wounded cave lion cub joins her unusual family, but her beloved animals don't fulfill her restless need for human companionship. Then she hears the sound of a man screaming in pain. She saves tall, handsome Jondalar, who brings her a language to speak and an awakening of love and desire, but Ayla is torn between her fear of leaving her valley and her hope of living with her own kind.

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This was the first book of the series I ever read. I found this one and "The Plains of Passage" on the shelf of my high school library. This book is one of the best of the series, with the back and forth between Ayla and Jondalar. I loved the vividness of the Stone Age world. You can tell she heavily researched these novels before writing them. The writing can get a little repetitive at times, but this book is so rich and full that I didn't mind. I highly recommend the first four books in the series.

This is one of my favorite books to the series. My heart aches for Ayla's need for company which she finds in Whinney and eventually in Jondalar. Ayla is painted as this very independent woman who overcomes so many obstacles.

RandyP
Jun 06, 2012

This book is enjoyable and should be read by anyone who liked the first.

It starts the rest of the series in a different direction and reads more like a woman's romance novel at times. The author creates a "does she like me, does he like me" angst situation between the main characters that bored me.